Unhome’ Sweet Home: The Construction of New Normalities in Italy During COVID-19

In Italy, the initial escalation of COVID-19 proved to be more severe and fierce than in most other European countries. According to media reports, the genesis of the pandemic began on 23 January 2020, when two Chinese tourists landed at the airport of Milano Malpensa for a tour in Italy. Both were subsequently hospitalised in Rome in a critical condition, where they tested positive once the SARS-CoV-2 virus test was administered. Things then deteriorated quickly. In less than a month (21 February) eleven municipalities in northern Italy (most of them in Lombardy) were identified as the centres of the main Italian cluster, confined under quarantine and labelled as ‘red zones’. By the second week of March, the whole of Italy was under lockdown after the decree to stay at home (Io Resto a Casa) was announced by the Prime Minister on 9 March. COVID-19 disrupted everyday life for the population. Everyday life provides that reservoir of meanings which allows us to make sense of reality. It is the ‘taken-for-granted’ dimension of our existence. With this in mind, in this chapter we investigate the ‘new normalities’ of life in lockdown, drawing on 20 in-depth interviews we conducted with a group of childless, highly educated young adults living in Northern Italy.